Die Another Day
by JTrevizo
Summary: What if things had gone differently at the end Retribution, Part II? AU from near the end of the episode.
1. Chapter 1

6/1/2010

Spoilers: Parts of Retribution, Part II. AU from near the end of the episode.

Disclaimers: Landmark Entertainment, Gary Goddard and his cohorts. Any time they want them back to remake this show, I'll be glad to give them back.

Author's note: There was a discussion on the CPatSofF Yahoo group about why CPatSotF seems to be immune from the fandom concept of alternate universe during the first season, and many people said that it was because the show was great as it was. But really – was the final episode not worth re-writing itself? And in doing that, how would the show have changed? I'll take a few liberties with the 'assumed' activities in the episode and rewrite what needs to be changed. So here's my idea…

Summary: What if things had gone differently at the end Retribution, Part II?

-x-

Die Another Day

By JTrevizo

-x-

They'd pushed the jumpship past its limits to get it back in the air. The hull was loosing bolts and the engines were whining as if they might fall off at any moment. But they were going to get there. They'd bounced through the gate and immediately opened the communications link to the base.

"We're in range," Scout said quickly, his eyes glancing to the Captain's desperate face.

"Pilot. Pilot, do you read me? Come in. Jennifer, come in. Pilot, do you read me? Come in Jennifer," Power called out, his concern nearly tangible to the others in the jumpship.

Inside the base, Jennifer had crawled through the door from where she'd ended up being hit by Blastarr's last two shots, her armor having powered down. She could feel her bones grate against one another in her chest and abdomen, her left arm felt… wrong. When she tried to take a deep breath as she pushed forward to the manual destruct at the power core, she felt her mouth fill with a coppery, wet taste, some of it spilling past her lips and out the side of her mouth.

Still, she forced herself to make it to the panel. Pilot pressed the button there to open the comm. and answer Power.

"Jon?" she replied in a broken voice.

"Jennifer, hold on. Hold on, we're gonna come," said Power, his own voice starting to shake as he listened to her voice.

"No…stay clear, the auto destruct is no good. I have to… I have to blow the power source. It's the only way," Pilot told him, her explanation breaking off several times as she fought to control the pain she was in.

"We're on our way to get you, right now. We're on our… there's another way to do it…" he insisted, his chest starting to tighten in fear as he comprehended what she was planning on doing. He would not let her die. He felt the jumpship somehow throttle faster… Hawk wringing out everything left in the ship to get to the base.

"It's too late… I'm all broken up inside. Stay clear. I'm sorry we never got to finish our talk…" she told him sorrowfully, the pain, fear and longing evident to not just Power, but everyone on the jumpship.

"Jennifer, don't…" Power cried out softly, his throat closing as he said the words; his heart beginning to cry out in alarm.

"I love you Jon… so much…" she said simply, the words reverently slipping past her bloodied lips.

The sounds of Blastarr's guns trying to cut into the door to the room distracted her, and she let herself look back to see the blast doors begin to buckle under the onslaught. That thing would be through any second. And she had to be strong enough to blow the power core before it could reach her… before it could stop her.

On the jumpship, Power sat stunned at her words… he had hoped, prayed that maybe… but to hear her say it now… he couldn't let her die now. They had to get there before she…

Quickly turning back to the console, she focused her thoughts on Jon… there had been so much she had wanted to say… so much she'd wanted with him that now was…

"Goodbye… you think of me sometimes?" she asked plaintively, knowing this was the last moment she'd ever speak to him… hear his voice…

Then with a sudden crash Blastarr was through the door, and Jennifer knew she was out of time. She glanced back to see the massive, shining metal machine advancing on her. Then she flipped back briefly, eyes wide as she realized the moment was upon her and thought of the team… of Jon one more time.

"Goodbye…"

She forced herself upright, unwilling to die on her knees before Dread's monstrosity. One arm wrapped around her abdomen, trying to hold the broken bones in place while the other blindly reached back to find the controls for the destruct sequence. Blastarr rolled in; his glowing gaze pinned on her and the controls behind her. He had his orders – he had to stop her destruction of the base so his Lord could join them and gather the information the base would yield.

"Surrender, by order of Lord Dread," Blastarr intoned, his hand rising to point four barrels of laser fire at the former Dread Youth traitor.

"Go to hell!" she replied angrily, unaware that she'd left the comm. link still open… inadvertently letting the others hear her final confrontation with Blastarr…

Pilot reached behind her, her fingers stretching for the destruct sequencer on the panel… and suddenly the entire section of the console was simply gone; including the rest of the destruct mechanism.

Blastarr had fired – but instead of shooting her, it had blown a hole in the controls and destroyed the self destruct controls. There was now no way to destroy the base… Blastarr would kill or digitize her, Dredd would get the intel and technology the base had… it was a disaster.

Pilot saw Blastarr swing his arm her way again; she continued to cradle her injured left arm around her middle, holding the broken ribs tightly as she kept herself semi-upright and breathed in another rattling breath.

"Surrender!" it demanded again.

"Never!" she spat at it venomously.

The bio-dread fired at her position, and she dove to her left, sliding along the rough floor and then scrambling across it on hands and feet, desperately trying to put some distance between her and the bio-dread who had nothing left to lose.

She kept scrambling, the floor around her spitting up concrete and dust as Blastarr destroyed everything in his path; his only goal to kill her. The dust made her cough, but it partially blinded her pursuer, giving her a slight chance at escape. With a last burst of strength she shoved herself upward and made it through the door to the air ventilation and environmental systems room.

Behind her she heard the clanking treads of Blastarr and fought not to panic. Another series of blaster fire ripped up the floor around her and she slipped on a piece of shattered floor and fell in a heap. She twisted as she fell, needing to look upwards, knowing that the monster was on her and she refused to die without looking the mechanical beast in the eyes.

Then she heard the roar of the jumpship, and felt her heart skip a beat.

They'd ignored her. Instead of keeping a safe distance as she blew the base, they'd instead kept coming and were here…

Blastarr's head raised as the sound echoed through the remnants of the base.

Hawk expertly landed the jumpship in the hangar bay and barely had the engines off before Power was up and heading for the door. He swiftly turned to regard the others.

"Power up. Jennifer's last position was the sub-control room where the power core destruct is housed. We cut our way through anything and anyone between us and that location. Understood?" Power barked out, and everyone nodded, knowing just what hung in the balance.

Four voices intoned the words to activate the power suits that made them a foe not to be trifled with. Power opened the door to the jumpship and was moving out, almost faster than any of the others could keep up with.

They hurriedly made their way through the near ruins of the base, finding the command center in smoldering flames and rerouting. They'd yet to meet any resistance; going down corridor after corridor they found out why… destroyed Dread soldiers littered the floors in clumps. Obviously Pilot had taken them as she'd fought her way through the base.

After what felt like hours and had been more like minutes, they finally reached the sub-basement control room where the destruct sequence for the power core was… and where Pilot had been planning on destroying the base. They saw the doors collapsed inward, scoring from blaster fire across it. Swiftly Scout whipped out his scanner, checking to see what might be on the other side of the ruined doors.

"Captain, I have a lock on two readings in less than 100 yards; one human and one bio-dread," Scout announced before he quickly traded the scanner for his blaster once again.

"We know it's not Soaron," Tank confirmed, recalling their earlier encounter with the flying metal menace.

"That means its Blastarr…" added Hawk, his eyes swinging to Power with concern.

Power had controlled his actions… barely. But the fact that Pilot… that Jennifer was here, injured, maybe dying with Blastarr pursuing her…

"We do what we have to do to get Pilot out safe… even if it's to surrender the base to Dread… I don't care," Power declared tightly, his hand clenching convulsively on his blaster's grip.

"All right… we'll follow your lead," Hawk answered, worry for what they'd find on the other side of the doors before them and what it would do to his friend filling his thoughts.

With that, Power rushed into the room that had housed the self destruct, not truly knowing what to expect, yet frightened of what they might find. When he and the others had made their way inside, they found a mini-battle zone. The console was half destroyed and huge sections of the walls and floor were pocked with indentations.

They quickly swept the room and realized that the emergency door to the left, leading to the ventilation and environment control room was open. Pilot had headed for the doorway, based on the small smears of blood that they found here and there, and she was being followed by tank tread marks that could only belong to Blastarr. They rushed through the door to enter the other room and Power stopped abruptly, causing the rest of the team to skid to a halt. Tank barely kept from knocking over Hawk as they found what Power had prayed they would find instead of Jennifer's dead body.

Blastarr stood there, his right arm with its deadly weaponry pointed towards the team and his left arm and hand holding Pilot aloft, her toes dangling nearly a foot off the ground. His metal fingers gripped her by her uniform collar, but the hold was tight across her throat, securing her in his grasp. Her blond ponytail hung limply, as did her limbs, and fear that they had arrived too late spiked through Power's gut.

"Pilot?" questioned Power quietly, his anxiety palatable to the others in the room.

He was rewarded with her head moving upwards ever so slightly and her hands reached up and pulled on the metal arm nearly choking her. The way Blastarr held her, he couldn't see her face… but the fact that she had moved at the sound of his voice was enough to give him hope.

"Captain Power," Blastarr began, the metallic twang to his voice filling the room. "Your base has been discovered… I have your team mate. You will surrender yourself or I will break the traitor's neck."

"We can negotiate this Blastarr…" Power started, his hand with his blaster lowering in a conciliatory gesture to keep the metal monster focused on him.

Power's words spurred Pilot into fighting against Blastarr's grip once again, wrenching enough of the fabric from its grip to turn her head slightly, hoping to turn enough to see Power…

"Jon, don't…" Pilot struggled to get out before the metal fingers holding her uniform at her throat closed in tighter, forcing her into silence once again as she simply fought for air.

"Stop it!" Power yelled desperately, unable to bear seeing Pilot strangled to death before him.

"Do you surrender?" spat back the electronic words of the bio-dread holding Pilot.

Power stood there, his blaster hanging loosely from his hand at his side as he pondered what options he had left. Surrender meant not only Jennifer being captured, maybe killed, but the rest of his team. And with them, the resistance would be crippled.

But what choice did he have?

He holstered his weapon and raised his arms, his palms horizontal to his chest in a placating move.

Behind him, Hawk and Tank had been standing closest to Power, leaving Scout somewhat concealed behind the other two. Having seen what the situation was and knowing that they needed a split second distraction to save Pilot and maybe all of them, he chanced a ploy that he'd used before… he figured it wouldn't work for more than a few moments, but it might be enough to give the others a shot at bringing down Blastarr and getting Pilot free.

"Blastarr, report," said a familiar voice, and the Power team turned to see Lord Dread standing there.

And no Scout.

Suddenly they all realized their covert ops member had made a gamble to help them all. Surreptitiously, Power moved back, away from 'Dread' as if he believed it to the real thing. Of course, in doing so, he moved closer to the confused bio-dread holding his pilot.

"My Lord?" Blastarr asked, puzzled by the appearance of his master.

Power slowly slipped his right hand along his side, his fingers wrapping around the laser charged blade sheathed there. Tank and Hawk had not moved, making Blastarr split his focus between them, Power and "Dread".

When the surprised bio-dread finally scanned the room, he realized the deception and growled, raising his arm to blast at the imposter. And as he did so, Power leapt back towards him, blade before him as he drove it into the wrist of the hand holding Pilot. Sparks flew and an agonized scream resonated from the machine, the metal splitting under the strength and energy of the blade ripping the metal in two.

Pilot suddenly was free, her body falling to the floor in a heavy thud. Power quickly fell to the floor, covering her with his own armored body as Scout, Hawk and Tank all fired at the bio-dread.

Blaster fire, Tank's bazooka and a final, desperate thermal grenade took the mechanical monstrosity down for good.

"Captain? Pilot?" called out Hawk as he rushed to where Power and Pilot were huddled on the floor, mere feet from the incapacitated bio-dread.

Power's suit had powered down with the last blast from the grenade, but it had been there long enough to shield him and Pilot from the onslaught against Blastarr. He eased himself away from Jennifer, remembering her comment about being broken up inside, and reached down to wrap an arm under her shoulders and turned her over. The rest of her comments… those he had shoved down deep until he could deal with them.

"Jennifer?"

"I told you… to stay back," she said in a rough tone, the sound of which seemed obvious considering how her throat was covered with dark bruises.

"And I'm the captain. I get to pull rank, remember?" Jon replied casually, reminding her of her complaint to him many months past.

The small curve of her lips lightened Jon's heart before she started coughing, and blood oozed past her lips once again, spilling down her cheek and prompting both Jon and Matt to anxiously focus on her.

"How you doin' kid?" Hawk asked in a rush, his hands moving quickly to her side, noting the scorch marks on her uniform.

"Could really… use… a doctor," Jennifer replied with a hiss as Hawk's hands inadvertently pressed against the broken ribs.

"Shit… Jon, we need to get her to the Passages. They're the only people who we know have the equipment to deal with internal injuries."

Power dipped his head in acknowledgement. He would do everything in his power to save her… but there was so much more at stake than just her life and their…feelings…

"What about the base? And Blastarr? We can't just leave it here and have Dread get it all," Scout said abruptly, reminding them of the bigger problem they had.

That brought Jon up short. With the auto destruct not working, Jennifer had planned to do it manually.

"We need to destroy the base," Power quickly said… hating the fact that it had come to this, but seeing no alternative.

"How? Every single control to do that remotely and from inside the base is toast," Scout complained.

"I don't know… we just have to," countered Power wearily. He didn't have time to argue with Robert – he had to get Jennifer to the Passages if she was going to live.

"Do we?" asked Hawk, his voice a mixture of curiosity and hope.

"What do you mean?" Power nearly snapped, his control starting to shred.

"Are we sure Dread knows the location of the base?" Hawk replied, eyebrows raised as he mentally digested the situation.

"Blastarr and the ship with all the clickers got here, didn't it?" Scout reminded him anxiously.

"But did they relay the location back, or did they just come through? If all Dread has is the frequency for the gate… we could blow the one here, and hide the base."

"It's possible… They went right through the gate when we opened it, then followed Pilot here. For all we know, Blastarr and his team never relayed the exact location of the base… all they had was the gate frequency. If that's what happened, we could reconfigure the other gate security frequencies so they can't use them either," said Scout excitedly.

"How can we find out if Blastarr sent back the coordinates?" asked Power anxiously, the notion a sudden ray of light seeming to burst from the tunnel of despair that had fallen on them. "Jennifer?"

"I don't know…" she breathed, her chest barely rising as she fought off the pain and weariness. "I heard him… report, but… didn't hear… coordinates."

"I can download the memory chip from one of the clickers… it should say what squadron's last actions were," Scout assured the Captain.

"And Blastarr? We can't let him regenerate and report back in," Hawk added quickly to the growing list of things they had to worry about.

"I have an idea," Tank started, moving next to the downed bio-dread. "We have lots of live electrical wires currently expending power. That power, if properly harnessed could disrupt Blastarr's regeneration… perhaps indefinitely."

The idea was stunning in its simplicity – keep Blastarr from regenerating and transmitting. If they could find a way to do it long-term… they could remove the bio-dread from the playing field forever.

"Scout, Hawk, help Tank move Blastarr somewhere and hook him up to whatever electrical conduits you can spare. I want him monitored at all times while you're working on seeing if we can hide the base and reconfigure the gates," Power stated quickly, looking to his people in total trust. "Hawk, as soon as that's done, check to see if the base emergency extinguishers kicked in on any of the floors. I'm sure the place is a mess, but if we can salvage anything…"

Hawk nodded, and looked down at the young woman still cradled in Power's arms. Her eyes had closed and in a moment of panic, he began to reach forward to assure himself she was still alive when he saw her chest rise and fall in a slow, arrhythmic pattern.

"Jon…" Matt began, looking from his friend and commanding officer to his team mate and the woman that loved him.

"I know. I'm taking Pilot to the Passages on the jumpship as soon as we finish this discussion…" Jon stated determinedly.

"Will it be able to get there and back?" asked Tank worriedly.

"I'll make it get me there," Power said darkly, making everyone in the room remember just how important saving Pilot's life was to the Captain.

"Get going… we'll deal with everything here," Hawk assured Power, resting a hand on the younger man's shoulder and giving voice to all of his friend's unasked questions. "I promise, if we have to evacuate, we will. But if we can save the base… just concentrate on saving her."

Power gave a tight but sincere smile in reply. Hawk and the others would do what they could here… and right now, Jennifer was his priority. He knelt down to scoop Pilot up into his arms, and then gave a final command, "let me know as soon as you know something."

"Same to you Captain," Scout replied, noting at the woman in the Captain's arms as he said it.

Sparing the others with a momentary grateful glance, Jon turned and rushed out the door, the slight burden of Jennifer Chase's body in his arms. He'd get her on the ship and chance the gate to get to the Passages. If Dredd came for them… well he'd be sure that he remembered the fight.

It wasn't long before Jon had Jennifer strapped into the medical bunk of the jumpship and he had the engines flaring to life. The ship was airborne in moments and Jon pushed the ship towards the gate, keying the code that probably couldn't be used after this last occurrence; in effect he was almost cutting himself and Jennifer off from backup, but he had to trust that Hawk, Tank and Scout could pull off some kind of miracle… similar to the kind he needed from the doctors in the Passages.

The sound of the jumpship taking off spurred Hawk into action, leaning over to kick Blastarr's motionless body with a resounding thud.

"Alright guys, let's make sure the Captain and Pilot have someplace to come back to," stated Hawk authoritatively as he sent off a prayer in his team mates direction that they both came back whole.

-TBC?-

So… does this AU suck? Is it worth continuing/exploring? Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!


	2. Chapter 2

11/16/2010

Disclaimer, rating, summary, etc. in chapter 1.

Wow, thanks to all who commented. I didn't really know what to expect, but the support and approval for the story was a great feeling. It's nice to know new ideas are encouraged in the fandom. So, here's the long delayed next chapter.

-x-

Die Another Day – chapter 2

By JTrevizo

-x-

The moment the jumpship exited the gate in the southwest quadrant, Jon pushed the throttle as hard as he could, stretching the ship to its limits once again as he sped the ship towards the Passages. As the miles flew past, his mind and heart wandered towards the unconscious young woman strapped down to the med-bay bed at the back of the ship.

He'd been so afraid that they'd gotten to the base too late, but they'd arrived just in time to rescue Jennifer from Blastarr. At that first sight of her in the Bio-Dread's grip he'd done his damnedest to submerge his feelings for her until the danger had past.

Yet she was still in danger; he knew that her condition was still touch and go and none of them had any idea of the extent of her injuries. If the medical personnel in the Passages couldn't repair everything, if it was too late…

Power angrily pushed those thoughts aside. He would not think that way. She was going to be fine, and the guys at the base were going to find a way to confirm that they were still hidden and disable Blastarr permanently. He couldn't think otherwise right now.

Before long the coordinates for the one known safe haven across the former United States came into range. At the signal alerting him to his closeness to his goal, he felt the tension in his chest ease ever so slightly. They and the jumpship had gotten there in one piece, more or less, and he had to believe that the doctors there could save Jennifer. Pressing a button on the panel before him, he opened the communications channel to the Passages central relay center.

"Passages, come in," Power stated urgently.

"This is the Passages, identify yourself," came the young sounding male voice on the other end.

"This is Captain Power. I have a medical emergency. One of my team is gravely wounded and I need assistance."

"Understood sir," replied the young man, his tone immediately becoming more respectful and urgent at Power's name and mission. "We'll have a medical team ready for you when you land."

"I'm five minutes out. Power out."

Shutting down the comm. channel, Power pushed the ship into a decent, heading for the landing area. The partially covered rock outcroppings covered ships from being scanned; some kind of metal in the rock scrambling Dread's sensors. He eased the jumpship into an empty section under the rock, feeling it buck and pitch as he flew it less elegantly than the woman in the back hold could.

The moment he was down, he was shutting off the thrusters and powering down the systems as quickly as he could. The urgency that had been present in his gut since the moment he'd heard Jennifer's voice on the comm. pushed him to move faster… for all he knew seconds at this point could still make the difference in Pilot living or dying.

Rushing to the back of the ship, he moved to Jennifer's side and unstrapped her from the med-bunk. At his deft touch, she gave a quiet moan, and Jon let himself feel for just an instant the relief and joy that he'd felt the moment he'd seen Jennifer alive after entering the base.

"It's okay Jennifer," he said softly as he moved to gather her in his arms and lift her from the bed. "We're gonna get you patched up, okay? And then we can finish our talk, alright?"

Power's heart pounded heavily in his chest as his words went unheard; her eyes stayed closed as she stayed limp and unresponsive in his arms. The fact that she was still unconscious worried him immensely. If the beating she'd taken had included a concussion, she could have bleeding in her skull… Fear spiked along his nerve endings at the thought and he violently pushed the idea away. He refused to think like that; he had to believe that she would be fine. He couldn't bear to think otherwise.

A banging on the hatch startled him from his thoughts and alerted him to the arrival of the resistance members from the Passages. Clutching Pilot to his chest, he moved swiftly the door. Pushing the button with his elbow, it opened with a snap and a hiss, lowering the ramp for him to see who was there.

Five resistance fighters in full battle gear and weapons drawn surrounded three medical personnel. Obviously they were in a high alert mode; to be expected if one of Power's vaunted team was calling in an emergency landing with a gravely wounded member.

The first of the three medical personnel was an older woman doctor that Power remembered from the team's trip to the Passages to bring them a vital vaccine, Dr. Alison Frost. With her was an assistant he peripherally recalled seeing before but the third person he didn't recognize. Dr. Frost moved towards him in a rush, eyes fixed on the limp form of Pilot in his arms.

"Captain!" she exclaimed, her hands running over the obvious injuries Jennifer had. "What happened?"

"Can you help her?" he asked gravely, ignoring her question; the doctor's reaction to Jennifer's wounds ratcheting up his fear for her once more.

"We can try. Luckily we've had a recent addition – a skilled surgeon, Dr. Jason Storm," she noted, directing Jon's attention to the man that he hadn't recognized. "Bring her this way and we'll do everything we can."

Without further prompting, Power followed them to the area that he knew they used for a hospital from previous visits to the Passages. They approached a door with a plaque reading "Surgery" on it. The younger 'assistant' opened it, revealing to Power a cobbled together operating theatre, reminiscent of what might have been seen during the Metal Wars.

"Over here," Dr. Frost stated, directing Power to the gurney in the center of the room.

Laying Jennifer down carefully, he painfully realized that this might be the last time he saw her alive if they couldn't save her… and it jolted him to his core.

"Captain… we need to get started…" Dr. Frost spoke, cutting into his thoughts.

Reluctantly he pulled away from her side, his hand surreptitiously caressing her still cheek one last time as the assistant ushered him out the door and the doctors started doing what they could to save Jennifer… and in every way that mattered, Jon's lives.

-x-

At the power base, Scout had literally spent hours struggling with two dilemmas. One was relatively easy… changing the codes for the gates and disabling the one nearest the base. It wouldn't take long and he'd put that on the back burner as he dealt with the more urgent issue – finding out if Dread knew where the base was.

He'd been reviewing the last transmissions from all the clickers that had come with Blastarr to the base. Not a single one of them showed any signs of having relayed back the location coordinates of the base once they had followed the signal from the fake disk Pilot had brought back to the base and breeched the security.

Still, Dread knew that Blastarr and the clickers had gone through the gate to the base. After that, everything that had happened, the fight with Pilot, the self destruct failure… Dread…

Suddenly Scout's jaw dropped open as a realization hit him. If he could pull this off, it meant that they were free and clear…

Quickly he rushed in to the room housing the power core where Hawk and Tank had hooked up Blastarr to the repeating disrupting circuit he'd rigged. As long as the power kept flowing along the lines, Blastarr wasn't able to communicate or regenerate.

"Hey, what's up Scout?" questioned Hawk as he watched the younger man race in, a look of triumph on his face.

"I had an idea," said Robert with a cocky grin that Matt and Michael were more than familiar with; it was one that usually meant he'd thought up something crazy and dangerous but bailed them out of a jam.

"It better be a good one," Matt replied with some weariness, the toll of not knowing how Jon and Jennifer were doing on top of the base issues weighing heavily on him.

"It is. Dread sent Blastarr to capture the base, and Jennifer was going to use the self destruct to blow it up, right?"

"Yes. So?" Michael asked, confused on how that had led to Robert being so happy.

"What if she'd succeeded?"

"I'm not following you," Matt replied, blinking rapidly to try and clear his head to comprehend what Robert was trying to get at.

"What if the base had blown up?" Robert said excitedly, his mind already thinking how he could accomplish this, "Blastarr would have taken forever to regenerate, and if and when he did, he'd be either buried in rubble and have to blast his way out or thrown out of the mountain base by the blast."

"But Jennifer didn't destroy the base," Michael reminded him, ever so gruffly.

"We know that, and right now so does Blastarr, but… what if I could reprogram him to believe the base was destroyed; a total loss with nothing to be salvaged. We move him to another location, a mountain with battle damage and drop him off there. He comes to thinking he's regenerated after being damaged by the blast…"

There was a long pause as Michael and Matt looked at one another and then back to a grinning Robert. If their resident computer hacker could pull that off…

"Dread wouldn't come looking for our secrets…" murmured Matt, stunned at the idea and its simplicity.

"Because he would think that there wasn't anything left," Robert added, still jazzed by his improvised solution to their problem.

"That could work…" Matt admitted warily. The idea was so simple, yet he was afraid to believe that it was feasible. But if Robert could pull it off, they'd have their base, still hidden and presumed destroyed by Dread and hopefully, Jennifer too.

"And it would hide the base from him," stated Michael, his mouth turning up into a grin at the idea of hiding in plain sight.

"You really think you can pull this off?" asked Matt, still overwhelmed at the possibility.

"Hey, I've pulled off much more elaborate stuff!" Robert replied, standing straighter as he pulled on the straps on his uniform coveralls.

"But we've had a lot more resources then," Michael reminded him as he leaned down to pick up a chunk of concrete ceiling from the floor at his feet. "We still don't even know what survived here…"

"Well, I'm starting an inventory of what's reparable in the base. I could use a hand…" Robert said, pinning his gaze on Matt.

"Fine. Anything to help get this monstrosity reprogrammed and out of here. It's an energy hog anyhow," Matt complained as he looked at the electrified form of Blastarr. "I'll start in the command center."

With that Robert and Matt headed out, leaving Michael to his sentry duty over the disabled bio-dread.

-x-

"Captain?"

At the sound of Dr. Frost's voice Jon stood up quickly, almost toppling over the bare frame chair across from the surgery that he'd been sitting in for hours. The doctor stood before him looking haggard, her medical jacket bloodied. At her appearance and demeanor, his heart dropped to his feet, taking his stomach with it.

"Is she…?"

"Holding her own," she said quickly, realizing his anxiety. "We're still working on some of the less urgent things… the fractured arm for instance."

Power felt himself fall back into the chair he'd just vacated in relief, his eyes closing and an absent hand running through his hair at the news. She was alive…

"It looks good though," Dr. Frost continued. "She did well under the anesthesia we had on hand. We were worried it wasn't going to keep her under, but she did well."

"When will she be done… awake I mean?" Power asked plaintively, the need to see her not only alive but awake starting to overtake him.

"We're probably an hour from being done, so maybe three or four. Once she's out of surgery we'll move her to her room. It's not much – just a cordoned off section of the medical bay, but it should afford some privacy while she heals."

"What about her uniform… her suit?"

"Her clothes and the power suit have already been transferred to her room. I can have Jeremy take you there to wait if you want…"

"Yes please…" he began, and then paused as a concerned though formed in his mind. "How long do you think she'll be out of commission?"

"She's a fighter, that's for sure. The next 24 hours are critical, and if we don't have to go back in… I'd say we'd be looking at least several weeks before the internal injuries start to heal, and her arm will most likely be in a sling for probably a month or so…"

The idea that she'd be laid up that long didn't surprise him, but would probably drive Jennifer mad. Still, it gave him ample time to spend with her and to talk about everything he had to say to her; everything that they still needed to discuss.

"Thank you," Power said finally, pinning Dr. Frost with his grateful gaze. "I…"

"Captain," she interjected, cutting him off, "after everything that you and your team have done for everyone, here at the Passages and everywhere else… it's us that are grateful to have the chance to help you and your team. So many people are alive because of what she, you and your team have done… it's the least we could do."

With that she smiled and patted his arm before turning back to the surgical room. A few moments later, the young assistant that had led him out of the room earlier came out and escorted him to the space that would be Jennifer's recovery area until she could return to the base… if of course the base was still there to go to.

He shook his head to drive the thoughts away and focused on where he was being led. Jeremy pointed to the space set up for Jennifer and Jon nodded his thanks before the young man turned and left. Slipping past the curtains making the makeshift room, he saw the bed along with a chair where Jennifer's things were neatly folded. He moved towards them, his hand picking up her uniform coveralls first, the tan fabric feeling rough beneath his fingertips. He set it aside on the bed as he sat down and directed his attention to her power suit.

Jon picked it up and inspected the suit as he sat on the bed, his mind fragmented in a thousand directions. There was a hole in the left side, near her stomach that had to be four to six inches across. With that kind of damage, it was no surprise that her armor had powered down. Considering how she'd stated that she'd been broken up inside, he had been expecting it to be in worse shape. Staring at the circuitry woven fabric, he thought that he might be able to repair it, and if he needed to, he could cannibalize some circuitry from some of the spare suits. Of course he had to hope the spare suits had survived the attack…

Suddenly he remembered Jennifer's words from when the base had just been invaded:

"_You give me three minutes to get the spare suits and back up Mentor's systems… that's standard evac procedure."_

Knowing how stubborn she was, there was no doubt that she'd done just that. So that meant their spare suits and a full system restore for Mentor were safe somewhere outside of the base. They had to locate them now…

Putting aside Pilot's power suit, Jon stood up and reached for the communicator on his wrist. He didn't know how the damage at the base would affect their comm. channel, if they'd even pick him up, but he had to give it a shot.

"Hawk, do you read me?"

There was a long moment, punctuated with static near the end, but finally Matt's voice crackled along the line.

"I read you Captain. Any good news?"

"She's holding on and the docs are optimistic. You need to have Scout run a scan for Pilot's transmission code… I think she followed evac procedure."

Hawk sat at the power base, looking at the mostly destroyed control room and Mentor's shattered systems. If Jennifer had followed procedure when Jon had told her directly to skip it, then Mentor's systems were backed up on a portable drive and the spare suits were somewhere safe and not fried to a crisp in here, which meant they had a real good shot at quickly rebuilding once Scout finished with his plan.

"Got it. We'll start on that immediately. Scout is working on addressing the other issues and will get you the key you need for the house soon. We expect that when he and Tank are done, the uninvited house guest will be gone and we'll be off the map once again."

Jon listened to Hawk's report, understanding the coded phrases for what they were. They must have confirmed that Dread didn't have their location, and that they were working on changing the codes for the gates and somehow dismantling or deactivating Blastarr. If that was the case, they'd be in good shape: they'd have Jennifer alive, their spare suits, Mentor and their base. He couldn't believe how in less than twelve hours they'd gone from everything falling around their heads to coming out of all of this somewhat intact.

All that was in doubt now was if the jumpship could get them back once the gates were re-coded.

"I'll be waiting for the key. Since I'll be here a bit longer, I'll see if I can get some help with the ship…"

A bark of a laugh cut across the comm. channel. "Better be careful of who you let touch the jumpship. If they screw something up, Pilot will skin them alive."

"Understood. Power out." 

Standing there, Jon couldn't help but smile at Matt's joke. Of course, the reality was that after everything he'd been afraid of finding after hearing Jennifer's goodbye, the idea that Jennifer was going to be alive to kill him or anyone for what they'd done to the jumpship made his heart and soul jump with joy.

With a sigh, he sat back down on the bed and picked up her power suit, using the time he had before they brought her in to recover to see what he needed to do to fix her suit… because she was going to need it again once she was well.

-End Ch 2-

So again, my apologies for the delay. For any of my PR readers, rest assured that I am working on the next chapter to Answering the Call as well. And for Die Another Day… well a new chapter will be the next thing to start. Thanks for reading (and your patience) – Ms. J.


	3. Chapter 3

1/28/2011

Rating, Spoilers, Disclaimer, etc in chapter 1.

Picking up where we left off…

-x-

Die Another Day – chapter 3

By JTrevizo

-x-

Almost immediately after closing his conversation with Power, Hawk opened a comm. channel to contact Scout.

"Scout, where are you?" Hawk nearly barked into his comm. link.

Scout pressed the button to open the comm. link on his wrist and replied, "In the power core. I'm just finishing the conduit for Blastarr."

"Well finish up quick… we've got a change in plans and I need you in the command center… now," he said, emphasizing the last word to make sure the covert ops and technical wizard recognized that it was urgent.

"Understood."

Scout quickly finished the last connection before flipping a switch and creating a sort of looping circuit through Blastarr's body, the bluish-white energy crackling through the machine and effectively keeping it short circuited. Scout holstered his spanner and turned to Tank and patted the designated guard for their bio-dread prisoner, noting that he was now on watch.

"Keep an eye on him… I'll go see what Hawk wants."

Tank nodded and Scout hurried out of the energy core area and double timed it through the base, finally making his way down the charred metal staircase into the command center. He hustled to the center of the room, studiously ignoring the charred and melted mass of wires and metal that had been a Christmas tree, to join Hawk where he sat at the burned out console that was main hub for the base and the center point of the room where Mentor's image would normally be… if the place wasn't a mess.

"What now?" asked Scout as he met Hawk at the console, "there's a whole lot of work to be done to get this place up and running…"

"Well I might have something that will make it a bit easier. Captain says Pilot followed evac procedures," Hawk replied, making Scout raise his eyebrows in surprise. "Can we check for a skybike or something with a homing signal?"

"Give me a sec," he said, turning on his heel to move to a section of the room where there was minimal damage where he started a series of calculations into the computer that resided there. A few moments later he got a beeping signal on the monitor along with a string of coordinates. "Ah ha, got it! It's maybe half a mile from here. I'll feed the coordinates to your suit's nav system."

"Great, I'll go get it. How about since you're already here you start working on the main console and be ready to upload Mentor's systems when I get back. And don't forget we need to get the gates closed and clear Blastarr out of here soon and maybe getting Mentor on line will speed that up."

"I've already shut the gates down… I did it almost the moment the Captain went through and when the Captain's ready to come back I'll reprogram them with the new codes. Dredd will never get back through like he did before – I'll be installing a safety protocol that will require the signature of one of our suits along with the code to open the gate. That should solve our unwanted house guest problem permanently."

Hawk patted Scout's shoulder with a grin. He knew that he'd come up with a solution to their technical problems. Now it was up to him to go and get the evacuated back ups that Jennifer had saved to help jump start the rebuilding of their base.

"All right, I'll leave you to it. Back soon."

With that Hawk turned and headed back up the stairs that Scout had just come down, moving to the landing bay and out of the base to bring back Pilot's package.

-x-

Throughout the Passages, just like he was throughout the resistance, Captain Power was known as a great soldier and leader, often fearless in battle, a brilliant strategist and a preserver of all life. Yet to the people who had seen him in the last twenty four hours, he was far from that.

Rumors were already swirling about his arrival; he'd landed needing medical attention for a member of his team who was gravely wounded. People said that he had stayed, rooted in the chair outside the surgical pavilion waiting for news on his pilot's condition and had only allowed himself to be moved to wait for her in the private space in the hospital wing where she was being brought following surgery.

And in that all that talk, people who had seen him were saying that he was a man holding on by the thinnest of threads… ones that seem tied to the survival of his pilot.

Of course none of those people gossiping about Captain Power and Corporal Chase had a clue how correct they were.

After being relocated to Jennifer's room, Power had heard the whispers of gossip on the other side of the curtains cutting the space off from the rest of the hospital. It seemed people tended to forget that the presence of the curtains didn't mean he couldn't hear them…

He shrugged after listening to the latest whispers about his relationship with his pilot and went back to his inward thoughts, Jennifer's power suit still on his lap, his fingers idly tracing the rip in the fabric and the wiring within. Power had been sitting in the room Dr. Frost had sent him to, expecting Jennifer to be brought in at any time for what he now realized had been nearly two hours.

The wait was starting to drive him insane. Only the fact that Dr. Frost had given him an encouraging prognosis for Jennifer earlier had kept him from pacing the small room. That and the fact that if he had gotten up to pace that he would have covered the space of the small area in four steps… making the idea of wearing a hole into the concrete floor beneath him a less than desirable solution to his frustration.

And of course Dr. Frost and any of the medical staff would know for certain that Jennifer's well being truly was what people were gossiping about – critical for his own survival.

The curtains parted suddenly and Jon bolted upright from his seat on the bed before fixing his eyes on the pale form on the stretcher two men were bringing in, followed by Dr. Frost. Quickly he pulled the covers from the bed and with Dr. Frost's help, moved the bruised and bandaged Jennifer, dressed in a simple medical gown with her left arm in a cast to her new resting place. The two assistants headed out quickly as Dr. Frost watched Power pull the covers over Jennifer and tuck them securely under each arm and across her chest.

"How is she?" Power asked, his eyes reluctantly tearing away from the form of the woman he loved to the doctor who had done all she could to save her.

"Good… I'm sometimes astounded at what your team can survive out there, but I expect that she'll be awake in the next few hours, and if everything goes as planned ready to head back with you in a week or so," Dr Frost said with a slight smile. "Now since she's settled in and you know she'll be awake fairly soon, are you going to wait on her or did you want to take a bit of a break to get something to eat?"

Jon looked down at the woman sleeping on the bed and felt that dam around his emotions starting to erode. She was going to live, and that meant that he had the chance to tell her how he felt. He looked back up at Dr. Frost and gave her a half smile as he backed up slightly to settle into the chair that he'd memorized the location of in the last two hours of his waiting for Jennifer's arrival.

"I thought as much," Dr. Frost said with a small grin. "I'll leave you now and have Jeremy bring you something."

"I appreciate it… I… we appreciate everything you've done for her, for the team."

"Don't mention it Captain," she replied, shaking her head as he thanked her once again for saving his pilot when she knew that the young woman in the bed had probably saved hundreds of people by her actions as a member of Power's team.

Saving Corporal Chase was simply helping balance the scales.

-x-

Within the base, Scout triple checked his connections and circuits as he worked on verifying they could get their systems up and running. With the backup for Mentor Hawk had retrieved along with the back up power suits, he'd been able to skip trying to see if any of Mentor's systems had survived. Instead he'd just load up Mentor's backup and go from there.

He'd been able to get most of the computer systems in the command center up and running after rerouting a lot of wiring and stripping that which had melted or been otherwise damaged by Blastarr's blasts or the fire. Once that was done he'd found a port in the main console that he could upload Mentor into the undamaged computer systems.

Without the audio system on the main console working, which he still had to get back up and running, he manually entered his override into the computer and plugged in Mentor's hard drive into the port. After another few moments, he saw the screen fill with a rapid cascade of code, indicating the download process for Mentor's systems was underway. With no way of knowing how long the download would take, he turned his attention to some of the other pressing issues. He wasn't sure if reprogramming Blastarr to think the base was destroyed was the top priority or getting the base back up and running needed to come first.

He sighed as he sat at one of the shattered screens on the main console, pulling wires and components for use elsewhere. If he had weeks to figure out either problem it would have been pushing it, especially without any backup, like he would get from Pilot being there. But instead he needed to work miracles in days for both issues.

"Any progress?" asked Tank, coming into the room to check on his friend.

"Some… not as much as I need. Hawk spot you a break?"

"Yeah. He figured as long as he has a bazooka and a working comm channel he can keep watch over the metal monster," he replied, eliciting a smile from his colleague.

"I'm just glad Pilot didn't listen to the Captain for once. With all the damage done to the command center… we would have lost Mentor without his backup," Scout remarked, indicating the hard drive backup that was even now restoring Mentor to the base's computer systems.

"It's not the first time she's disobeyed him," Michael said, his voice changing, becoming slightly softer as he referred to their injured team mate.

"And god willing, not the last," Robert replied, looking at his friend and team mate meaningfully.

Michael nodded and gave Robert a rueful grin. With Mentor still uploading and Michael there to lend a hand, Robert moved to the recharging stations for the power suits, hoping the damage wasn't as bad as it looked, indicating his intent with a slight movement of his head to get Michael to follow him.

Robert unscrewed the cover plating to the power suit recharging station with a spanner. Michael realized what his friend was doing; recognizing that his arrival would allow him to do the 'heavy lifting' that would aid Robert in getting the charging station back up and running. He reached down to pry the metal casing loose from its mountings which would allow Robert access to the wiring and circuits inside.

"The Captain told Hawk she was hanging on," Tank remarked as he hefted the piece of scorched metal from the outside of the charging station, exposing the wiring and circuitry.

"Still, I'd feel a lot happier if we knew she was out of the woods and on the mend."

"I think we all would like that."

Scout probed deeper into the guts of the machinery that would make or break their ability to use the base again. He ripped out a burned out circuit board that looked like it had been fried from an electrical over load and tossed it aside. Digging through the salvaged ones, he started connecting wires to a new circuit, hoping that it could handle the load.

"The Captain will like that more than the rest of us," Robert remarked with a sly grin as he thought of their leader finally having to stop dancing around his feelings for their pilot.

"I don't doubt it," Michael replied, his own grin lightening his face. "Of course that will mean more work for the rest of us."

A final connection made, the lights on the charging station came on suddenly, the sound of the machine filling the room. Robert looked up in success at Michael, and then turned his head, puzzled.

"Why more work?"

"Because, I fully expect the three of us will be offering to cover for the two of them when they might be too… busy with… other activities."

Robert's eyes widened and mouth dropped open at Michael's salacious suggestion, and then shrugged his shoulders. He could see Hawk offering to take one of the Captain or Pilot's shifts on monitor duty so the two of them could be undisturbed, and if Michael was expecting to do the same…

"Well, then," he said with a wicked grin to his friend, "we better get to hear some locker room descriptions, 'cause the rest of us have been monks for months!"

Michael gave a small laugh before moving the charred cover back into place so Robert could close the gap up, knowing that there were dozens more tasks to attend to if they had any chance of fixing the base before the Captain and Pilot returned.

-x-

After having eaten the pretty decent meal Jeremy had brought him, Jonathan Power had set the tray, glass and Jennifer's power suit aside so he could sit next to her, holding her right hand tenderly. The fact that her skin was warm once again had given him hope like nothing else had since the moment he'd listened to her declaration when she thought she was going to die.

Of course he still didn't know what he was going to say to her when she woke, even though he'd had nearly 24 hours to think about it. In all his life, he'd never been in such a position… romantically. He knew how he felt and he knew how Jennifer felt. It was just up to him to let her know what was in his heart and see if she really wanted… something with him. It was one thing to say you loved someone when you were thinking you were going to die… it was a wholly different thing when you knew you were going to live.

However he was fairly sure that she had wanted to tell him about her feelings before that near death confession. Memories filled his mind of standing in her room, his hand touching the Dread Youth hat that she'd worn so… reluctantly. She'd looked at him as if she had the most important thing to say…

And he knew that if she'd said it then he'd have reciprocated, there wasn't any doubt… but now, having nearly lost her, it made his decision to tell her how much he loved her so much more imperative. He never wanted her to think he didn't care about her… love her with everything he had ever again.

With a sudden moan, Jon pushed his thoughts aside violently and focused intently on Jennifer's face as her eyes fluttered and then opened slowly, her vision hazily focusing on the familiar shape leaning beside her. As he saw the recognition of who he was flicker in her eyes he couldn't help the smile that bloomed on his own face.

"Hey, welcome back."

"Jon?" she replied in a rough voice.

She swallowed with difficulty and he reluctantly released her hand so he could reach down and fetch the water that had been with his meal. Carefully he held the cup to her lips and helped her sip some. He drew the cup away before she had too much and set it aside, returning to hold her hand with one hand, the other moving to brush away some of her hair that had become unruly at her movement to drink.

"How are you feeling?" he said softly, his fingers tightening around her hand once again.

"Like… like I should have been dead. Where are we?"

"We're in the Passages… the doctors here fixed you up. We rescued you after you tried to blow up the base. Do you remember?"

Jennifer nodded before taking in a deep breath that made her chest, left arm and stomach ache from the remnants of the surgical intervention to save her life. Memories of the fight, of Blastarr and her desperate call to Jon and the team filled her mind. Then additional images came at her: the sound of the jumpship's engines, Jon's voice calling out her name, looking up to see Jon and Matt checking her and then… nothing. She must have passed out she realized dimly.

Looking at Jon as he sat there, letting her take her time in processing everything she remembered the feeling of relief, of hope when she'd heard the ship's arrival at the base as she faced her death at Blastarr's hands; knew Jon and the others were coming to her aid. But she still didn't understand why they'd kept coming towards the base, knowing she was going to destroy it. If she'd succeeded, they all would have died. She blinked slowly before she pinned her Captain and the man she loved with her blue gaze.

"Why didn't you stay back?" she asked, confusion and disbelief in her voice as well as visible in her eyes.

At her statement silence filed the space as he fought down the pain those words brought him. Jon looked at her, his face filled with hurt and love, truly and fully unmasked for the first time since he had heard her final words to him over the jumpship's comm. The fact that she didn't understand why needed to end now…

"You thought we could… that I could have left you there… that I wouldn't have done everything in my power to get to you in time…" he stated simply, his voice halting at times as he forced out the words that only superficially sounded like a question.

"I…" she started, and at the look in his eyes she stopped, her voice seemingly disappearing at the smoldering, heartrending look she found within them.

"After I… when I heard you say… you loved me… there was no way in hell I was leaving you there… not if I could save you. I love you too much to lose you," he said adamantly, making Jennifer's eyes widen and then tear up. "I would have done anything in that moment to change things… I don't know why I didn't answer you… told you I loved you when you said it to me. Maybe I was too shell-shocked at you saying it; maybe it was because I was scared out of my mind for you. But I never want you to ever doubt how I feel… I told you once you were never alone. I meant it… I love you Jennifer. I'll always be here for you…"

"I love you too Jon… so much," she answered softly, her words almost an unconscious reiteration of her desperate admission a day before.

Leaning over, he lightly kissed her lips; a chaste expression of the more passionate feelings he held for her. Pulling back, he watched the wondering and perplexed look on her face at his actions.

"When you're feeling better I'll truly show you how I feel about you," he said with a smile that elicited a similar one from her. "But for now… we focus on getting you better, and I'll tell you what you missed."

"I like that plan… I like it a lot."

-End Ch 3-

Wow, super emotional ending here. I'm not sure when (or if) I'll continue… I know there's lots more to cover (the return to the base, Blastarr getting 'released' and the like), but I'm not sure if I have those ideas in my head quite yet. So if there's more, I'll post them. But otherwise, thanks for reading (and your patience) – Ms. J.


	4. Chapter 4

Die Another Day – Ch 4

Here's the last chapter for this story, and it picks up where we left off…

Die Another Day – chapter 4

By JTrevizo

-x-

Jon watched as Jennifer's smile at his words wane as her eyes drifted shut, and then fought to open several more times. The reality of the situation was that she had barely survived dying, and keeping up the conversation with him as well as the emotional drain had to be taking its effect.

"Go back to sleep. I'll be here when you wake up, I promise."

"Don't want… to sleep…" she replied with several yawns and her lids falling closed again, her mind forcing them open once more.

"Please?" he asked, "Or do you want me to pull rank again?"

She gave him a sleepy smile and clutched his hand as she game a slight but obvious nod. Without opening her eyes again, she settled back into sleep with Jon watching her intently.

-x-

"Mentor up and running?" asked Matt as he came in from having switched out with Michael again for the ongoing guard duty of Blastarr.

"Yeah. I need to find some materials to rebuild the hologram tube…" Robert trailed off, and then looked back to the older soldier, "but he's online."

"Has be been any help on the Blastarr front?"

"More than… I think I know what the pathways are for accessing and altering his memories. I just want to craft the new ones perfectly before I do anything."

"Where are we taking him?"

"There's a destroyed military base which had a bunker beneath it for old style missiles in a mountain probably 100 miles East of here. I'm thinking the tech there, all destroyed and buried by the wars will make a reasonable facsimile of our base."

"How soon can you get this done? I think we all would appreciate being able to get some sleep without worrying the damn thing will break free and kill us all."

"I hear you Hawk."

"Look, I know we're all anxious to get the thing outta here but don't forget you need to get some sleep. Last thing we need is for you to fall over or make a mistake in the programming… then what will be do?"

Robert gave Matt a grin and reached over to pat him on the shoulder.

"I get it. Look, let me finish what I'm doing here and then I promise to catch an hour or two before I reprogram our captive bio-dread."

"Good."

-x-

18 hours later Robert had reprogrammed Blastarr with the 'cover story' memories and after damaging him with a few grenades to extend his regeneration, Michael and Matt had helped drag the massive bio-dread to the hangar, where they roped him with electrical conduits from the ruined landing bay to two of the skybikes. With Robert and Michael climbing on, they fired up the two craft and lifted off, raising the metal monster off the deck of the hangar. Programming on their destination they were headed for, the two flew out of the base, with Michael in his power suit flying as support.

After less than an hour they dropped Blastarr 100 miles south, in the ruins of the former U.S. military base. Once they'd cut the bio-dread loose, they hightailed it back to the base where the three quickly headed to the command center, huddling around one of the displays that Robert had gotten working.

"Well?" asked Matt impatiently as he waited for Robert to say something…

"We're picking up a transmission from the drop point," he finally said, looking back to his two team mates.

"That was fast. He most have been almost regenerated by the time we dropped him off," Michael noted, surprised.

"Well, we were kinda just keeping him from regenerating with the electricity…" Robert remarked as his eyes and ears waited, then he heard a series of clicks and reached for a pair of headphones that he'd tuned into the Dread frequency, specific to Blastarr's position. A second later he turned and flashed them a grin, "Message sounds like… yes!"

"Scout?" questioned Matt, wanting to know exactly what was going on.

"He's reporting in that he destroyed the base and there isn't anything to salvage!"

"Is Dread buying it?" Michael asked nervously.

"Hold on… yeah, he's commending Blastarr on the good work and ordering him back to Volcania. We're clear!"

"Holy shit kid, you did it!" yelled Matt as he clapped his hand on Robert's shoulder, looking up to share a grin with Michael.

"Wait till we tell the Captain," said Michael and Matt nodded, stepping back as he brought up his wrist.

"Well, there's no time like the present…"

-x-

Jon had been by her side every single time she woke up, whether it was for the doctors or nurses checking on her or if it was just her waking up from dreams… or nightmares. And she'd had a few in the unknown hours since she'd woken the first time and found Jon sitting beside her.

She figured there had been at least two, and he'd been there with a hand in hers and the other touching her cheek as she'd fought her way up from each one. As she woke with a start, she realized this one must have been number three.

"You okay?" he asked, worry etched on his tired face.

"Yeah… I just…"

"Bad dream," he stated, not even phrasing it as a question.

"Are you surprised?"

"Only that you can sleep at all right now..." he said softly, and she noted the dark smudges under his eyes and realized that he probably was sleeping as well as she was, if not worse.

"Nearly dying and being exhausted kind of helps with that. But this isn't really the first time I've had problems sleeping. I had nightmares for a while, back when, if you recall."

He frowned a bit and let his fingers brush her brow, sweeping back the wisps of blond hair that had fallen into her face. He didn't like to think of the months following them bringing her onto the team, to the base… she'd been through some horrifically traumatic things in her escape and that wasn't even dealing with her memories of the Dread Youth.

"You got through it… I know you talked with Mentor a lot as you worked through it."

Jennifer nodded, recalling those early days well. And with the thought of talking to Mentor about things she didn't know how to deal with, a small smile flitted across her face as she remembered asking him what love was… and her eyes slid to where Jon stared at her and knew that she'd known all along that the thing she was feeling for the man before her was important and different and so very real…

Jon smiled back at her, reading the feelings crossing within her eyes. They'd come so close to not having this…

"Captain, can you read me?" called Hawk across the communicator Jon wore, breaking into the two's unspoken conversation and Jon flashed Jennifer a wry smile before he answered.

"I'm here Hawk. What's the news?"

"We've got good news. The house is off the map and the houseguest has been kicked out none the wiser."

Jon smiled and looked to where Jennifer was looking at him with a confused expression. He'd have to explain later when they weren't on an open channel.

"That's great. And you're cleaning up?"

"Yup," said Scout now, adding his voice to the conversation. "I'm making progress on making repairs. I figure we'll come to you with any supplies you need when you're ready to come back… by the way, any news on our girl?"

With a knowing grin Jon leaned closer to her, bringing the communicator on his wrist close enough for her to easily speak into.

"I hope that you're not patching anything with substandard parts that I'll end up having to fix again later," she said and then Jon and Jennifer heard happy shouts on the other end of the channel.

"God it's great to hear your voice kid," said Hawk and Jennifer glanced at Jon with a watery smile.

"I promise I won't make any extra work for you," offered Scout as he joined in.

"And I'll make sure he doesn't," added Tank, rounding out the three members of the team left behind.

"Look, I don't want to stay on too long. I'll call in tomorrow, okay?" Jon announced.

"Got it Captain. Take care out there Pilot."

Disconnecting the communicator, Jon turned to look at Jennifer, and immediately found himself grinning. There, still laid out on the hospital bed, less than 24 hours out of surgery was a aggravated, demanding Pilot, waiting for answers from her superior officer.

"So, what's going on that we can't talk about on our channel?" she asked, the tone in her voice challenging and demanding all at once.

"You remember us coming in after Blastarr caught you, right?" he said simply, waiting to see if his words would register with her, or if all of it was a blank.

She nodded and he watched her hand slide up the bed and brushed lightly the fading bruises around her neck. He fought down the anger that still bubbled in him at the thought of what Blastarr had done to her… how he'd nearly lost her...

"Well I left the guys behind to find a way to dispose of him."

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open slightly. He smiled and reached down to catch her hand.

"Robert reprogrammed Blastarr and they located an old military base within the original radius of the jumpgate. The message Matt just relayed meant that Blastarr reported to Dread that our base was destroyed…"

"But… I didn't…"

"No, you didn't… and since Dread thinks the base is gone, we won't have them looking for us there again."

"So, we can go back?" she asked, stunned that the base she was going to destroy to protect the resistance and the team was safe.

"Yes. And once they clear you to travel back to recuperate there, we'll have the guys come out, fix the jumpship and we'll head home."

There was a long pause, and before Jon got too worried at her silence, she stared at him, her eyes narrowing, "and what exactly did you do to my ship?"

Jon couldn't stop the laugh that bubbled up from his chest. He was a lucky man – he had the woman he loved alive and safe with him, his team mates had saved their base and protected it from Dread and everything they'd learned from having captured a bio-dread would bring them that much closer to ending the war.

Less than 2 days ago he thought everything was over, but now… he grinned at her and then leaned forward to kiss her soundly, overwhelmed at the fact that there was a bright future that he could finally see in his horizon.

-End-


End file.
